Copy pasted from this thread at /r/criticaltheory

It strikes me that many, if not all, MAGA leaders are doing drag performances constantly. Trump does drag as a physically strong virile man, attempting to obscure the whiny old weak man he really is. Kristi Noem puts on Federal Agent drag and goes on TV and does grown up drag like the way where a child will impersonate an adult and exaggerate the authoritarianism of adults. (“You better eat all your vegetables or no screen time for you, little lady!”)

Then there’s the garish makeup that Trump, Noem, and others wear that is reminiscent of a campy drag that isn’t trying to be taken seriously, or reminiscent of a child who gets to put on makeup for the first time and overdoes it.

The plastic surgery, the Maralago Face, is young person drag.

It just strikes me that, unbeknownst to them, they are doing many drag performances and are actually doing something that the best drag performances do, which is to not attempt versimilitude, not try to convince everyone you are AFAB or an actual responsible adult running the government, but to do it in a way that isn’t convincing and thus undermines the essentials that we assign to these identity categories.

This isn’t a defense of MAGA or an attempt to find silver linings like, “Well, they are doing the Lord’s work by undermining government authority with their drag performance!” but to highlight the irony of people who made hay off of drag queen storytime having press conferences that are just drag queen storytime with more A/V equipment and more fabulation.